**Lost in La Mancha feels like (probably because it was originally intended to be) a super long DVD 'making of' featurette. Sidenote: I think I've referred to these features in some shape or form in all my last three reviews: how odd.
Unfortunately, it doesn't have much more substance than that, and thus certainly doesn't enter the league of real documentaries. If you aren't familiar with the concept, I will once again be oh so gracious and provide some background. Essentially, eccentric director Terry Gilliam has dreamed of making a film version of Don Quixote for the last decade. Having no luck in Hollywood, he turned to Europe for the money. Johnny Depp, Vanessa Paradis (Johnny's real life partner), and renowned French actor Jean Rochefort signed on.
Moreover, not all that much really does go wrong! There's an initial lack of budget ($32 million, about half of what would normally be required for a picture of this scope). There are some pre-production problems with scheduling, and later a storm screws up a scene and damages some equipment. The coup de grace is Rochefort's illness that causes him to exit production for at least a month. Yes, some bad luck, but it doesn't seem quite so extraordinary that a whole movie was warranted.
More likely, they were just trying to salvage some of the $32 million squandered. It appears the box office total was less than $1 million, so hopefully the DVD sales pulled in a bit more than that. It seems that Gilliam has a bit of a track record for screwing things up.
Actually, I think this would have been a much better little documentary if it had starred a more appealing director than the insufferable bugger that I had no idea Gilliam was. He is constantly swearing, yelling at his cast and crew, and blaming others for his own failures. His one shining moment is standing beside his first assistant director, who inevitably gets blamed for everything (apparently this is just how it works in Hollywood). But besides Brazil (which I never particularly liked), 12 Monkeys and The Fisher King seem to be the only things he's done right. His resume is full of half-completed, abandonded films and flops. His latest, Tideland, appears to be continuing in this tradition, already receiving unanimous 'boos'. Hey, at least he finished it!
So, I wouldn't recommend Lost in La Mancha unless you happen to be a big Gilliam / Don Quixote fan, or an aspiring little film-maker yourself - where this may serve as a useful "how not to make a movie" manual.
2 comments:
Well, 12 Monkeys, Brazil and Monty Python and the Holy Grail would all fall somewhere on my Top 50 Movies of all time list (12 Monkeys regularly makes my Top 20), so I'd certainly not agree with your assessment of him as a director. Add in one segment of The Meaning of Life and that's a pretty impressive resume! He's got more of the visionary in him than any typical 5 directors in Hollywood, if you ask me. He may be insufferable (no idea) but he certainly has made a trio of fantastic movies, along with several that were at least entertaining: Time Bandits and The Fisher King.
Give the man his props, t!
I tend to consider Monty more of a collaborative effort, but tis certainly true that he has more creative spark than anyone this side of Neil Gaiman or Alan Moore! (I'm becoming a mini you, ain't it cute).
So mild props, Terry Gilliam, mild props...
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